Connie Francis, a former teen pop singer, is now 85 years old, and her face bears the signs of age and despair. Nonetheless, her lush lips are as stunning today as in 1958 when she sang “Who’s Sorry Now?”
Francis, born in Newark, New Jersey, and stood 1.56 m tall, was known for always wearing false eyelashes and stiletto heels.
Francis looked magnificent on her 85th birthday, which she celebrated with “the largest gathering of lifetime friends and those closest to me.”
Francis rose to prominence with the release of her single “Who’s Sorry Now,” and she remained popular throughout the 1960s with singles such as “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” “Heartaches by the Number,” and “Lipstick on Your Collar.”
She had the advantage of notoriety but was still beset by grief.
Francis, the best-selling female singer of the 1960s, fell in love with teen idol Bobby Darin, who became the decade’s most successful male artist. He wrote a number of the songs she sang, and their love grew so great that she later declared, “Bobby was my first and last love.”
In an interview with FOX News, Francis describes her epic relationship with Darin and the instant infatuation that sparked his flight instinct.
“One day in 1956, Bobby came to my office to show me a song,” she explained. “He was creating jingles for a New Jersey furniture store. He played me this tune, which I altered slightly. Let’s say he was displeased.”
“This lady and I don’t dance to the same tune,’ he remarked. ‘I’m leaving.’ So he took his song and began to walk away! But he returned with the changes I made. But it was a hatred that quickly transformed into love.”
Their romance, however, was doomed from the start.
Francis’ demanding and short-tempered Italian father disapproved of the developing affair and eventually drove Darin away from Francis.
“My father despised him so much,” Francis explained. “He even attempted to shoot him.” He arrived with a pistol in his pocket. Bobby also had a poor heart.”
“He was an amazing human being,” Francis said of Darin after his death. The most intriguing person I’ve ever met in my life. He possessed a determination I’d never seen in anyone else.”
The great singer and actor died at the age of 37 in 1973. His performances of “Splish Splash,” “Mack the Knife,” “Dream Lover,” and “Beyond the Sea” will live on in the hearts of all who heard them.
Darin, also an actor, earned a Golden Globe for his performance in his debut film, Come September, alongside another adolescent idol, Sandra Dee, whom he married in 1960.
Meanwhile, Francis was hard at work on her career under the cautious eye of her father.
After lending her voice to actresses such as Jayne Mansfield in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958), Hollywood eventually hired her in a prominent role and had her sing the hit song Where the Boys Are.
She continued to appear in films until her final one, When the Boys Meet the Girls, in 1965. Acting, on the other hand, was never her strong suit.
“I didn’t feel at ease, as if I didn’t belong there.” “I was so pleased it was my last one,” she remarked of her final film.
She had relationships with Don Rickles and the blue-eyed crooner Frank Sinatra after Darin.
Francis married and divorced four times before finally settling down with Joseph Garzilli, with whom she adopted a child after a year of marriage. During that marriage, she was attacked by a man who had broken into her motel room after a concert in New York in 1974.
Francis went into a deep depression after the tragic event and spent the following seven years in complete isolation, relying on Darvon.
In 1977, she underwent nasal surgery due to her difficulty in singing in air-conditioned settings. She underwent three more treatments and could not talk for the following four years after showing no signs of improvement.
Her brother, George A. Franconero, a former district attorney and government witness, was shot dead in front of his home in what authorities call a “mob killing” just as she prepared to make a comeback.
Among My Souvenirs, Francis’ 2017 memoir, is an open and honest account of her life and profession, documenting the highs and lows she faced.
Tony Ferretti, her 18-year companion, died in 2022; the two had sung a duet of “You Made Me Love You.”
She said that she wanted to be remembered about her current life: “not so much for the heights I have attained, but for the depths from which I have emerged.”
She wants “I hope I did okay,” a New Jersey native who now lives in Florida, etched on her tombstone. She celebrated her 85th birthday by wearing a short navy blue kaftan printed with vivid yellow flowers, scarlet lipstick, neatly coiffed hair, and sensible low-heeled sandals.
Connie Francis, from our perspective, did a fantastic job. Her tragic upbringing prompted her to devote herself to mental health activism to assist other victims of violence.
